ENGLISH hockey's top two sides produced a goal-feast at Sonning Lane on Sunday, but Reading coach Jon Copp was still left disappointed.

"It was a game we should have won," he said.

"We did well to come back so strongly, but then we threw it away in just a minute or two."

Copp added: "We played some excellent hockey at times but it was interspersed by some shoddy play."

Blues went 2-0 down early on but fought back to take a 4-2 lead and they missed a chance or two to put the game out of Cannock's reach. But the unbeaten Premier Division leaders scored twice in less than two minutes to force a draw.

The point leaves Reading one behind Cannock and level with third-placed Surbiton, who at the same time were sharing 10 goals with Canterbury.

The importance of this match didn't appear to register with the Reading players as they struggled to string passes together in the early stages, were not running well off the ball and were also guilty of giving the ball away too easily.

So it was hardly surprising when the visitors forged ahead with goals from Simon Organ, following their first penalty corner in the 15th minute, and Chris Mayer in the 22nd minute.

But then Howard Hoskin and Andy Todd started to cause Cannock's defence some problems and Jonty Clarke was left with a simple tap-in for Reading's opener in the 28th minute.

Three minutes later Hoskin turned goal scorer, albeit with a close-in deflection and Reading went in at half-time on level terms.

Reading continued to up the tempo in the second half and Simon Mantell missed a good chance before Jon Wyatt fired home from a penalty corner in the 47th minute the home side were ahead.

Four minutes later Justus Scharowsky unleashed a tremendous reversed-stick shot to make it 4-2.

The German student, now with four goals in the last five games, continued to look dangerous but missed a good chance when firing high over the bar.

"I was angry with myself as I should have scored a hat-trick," he said later.

Reading were made to pay for their misses as Richard Lane brought the Midlanders back into the game by finishing off a penalty corner routine in the 56th minute and a little over a minute later the same player hit the equaliser.

Cannock had the ball in the net again but only to see it disallowed and it needed a last-ditch tackle by Richard Mantell to prevent a fifth goal.

Reading face another tough game this Sunday (12.30 start) when they travel to play Hampstead and Westminster.